PROSPER, Texas — At a time when one in five children in North Texas is food insecure, according to a 2024 North Texas Food Bank report, children who rely on school lunch often struggle most over school holiday breaks. To help those kids get the nutrition they need, members of the Prosper Texas Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and JustServe volunteers joined the nonprofit Lovepacs to pack boxes with food for children to eat over the holiday break. The pantry items were purchased using funds donated at the Giving Machine kiosks in Texas the previous year.
In four shifts Saturday, Dec. 13, more than 60 people gathered in the cafeteria of an out-of-use middle school. Lining up along a roller conveyor, the volunteers assembled cardboard boxes and packed them with canned fruits, vegetables, chili and tuna, along with other shelf-stable foods, including boxed macaroni and cheese, granola bars, oatmeal packets and popcorn. The boxes were sealed and decorated with the Lovepacs colorful logo as well as cheerful phrases and pictures.
By the end of the event more than 800 boxes had been packed. They were given to children in local school districts when school let out for the winter break and provided three meals and two snacks a day for a week.
Volunteers from the Prosper Texas Stake work with Lovepacs to pack boxes of food for children in need in Prosper, Texas, Dec. 13, 2025. | Ashley Wright
The boxes were just one offering from the 2024 Light the World Giving Machine initiative. The Giving Machine kiosks — big red vending machines that are set up annually around Christmas and stocked with donation options provided by local and international charities — offered four ways to donate to Lovepacs in addition to the boxes. One was weekend bags, which provide a weekend’s worth of meals for children who during the school week rely on free and reduced-price lunch or are otherwise food insecure. Donations garnered enough money for 918 weekend food bags. The Giving Machine kiosks also offered options to purchase snacks, fresh produce and cereal, which Lovepacs used to purchase 3,500 boxes of cereal in 2025.
The donations thrilled the community volunteers, as Lovepacs depends on donations to provide for 8,100 children in 18 communities it serves.
Such numbers were perhaps unimaginable when Lovepacs started. In 2011, Lovepacs’ founders learned of six children at a local elementary who at the start of the weekend were being sent home with a backpack of food. A school counselor said the children were not getting enough to eat on weekends and would go hungry over the weeklong Thanksgiving holiday. The founders put out a call to the community and prayed to God for a response. They received enough food to feed 46 children two meals and one snack for the nine-day week. For the Christmas break, they contacted schools again to discover the number had doubled to 100, doubling again to 200 for spring break.
Since then, Lovepacs’ ranks have grown beyond four founding families, and so have the numbers of children it serves.
In November 2025, it moved into a building that was formerly Little Elm Independent School District’s Lakeside Middle School, which closed in 2020. It has since been repurposed as a community resource center and houses several other nonprofits, such as Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which mobilizes communities to builds beds for children, and Building the Bridges, which helps people access resources to secure food, education and employment.
Members of the Prosper Texas Stake volunteer with Lovepacs to pack boxes of food for children in need in Prosper, Texas, Dec. 13, 2025. | Ashley Wright
One advantage over its previous location is the refrigerator and freezer units. These allow Lovepacs to store perishable donations, like meat. Kim Groff, community leader volunteer for the Aubrey, Frisco and Little Elm chapters of Lovepacs, said the organization is particularly excited about the fresh produce proceeds from donations at the Giving Machine kiosks. Beginning in January 2026 it plans to use the money to help supplement its usual market options of carrots and potatoes with more fruit options, like bananas.
Dani Marzo, a resident of Prosper and one of December’s volunteers, appreciated the family-centric volunteer opportunity. She had come with her husband and two of her children, and said she loved “seeing the kids that can be involved.” Her daughter Emory Marzo, a freshman at Heritage High School, said her favorite part was getting to serve other families with her own family. “It’s great how they’re providing food to people who need it, and how they give other people an opportunity to serve and help set it up.”
Groff said Lovepacs has seen an increase in the number of families it serves. “We see it over and over again: You’re one health problem away from being in trouble. You’re one car problem away from being in trouble. … Small changes are really big when you’re living on the margins.”
But perhaps the converse is also true: When you’re living on the margins, a little assistance — a small donation at a Giving Machine kiosk that becomes a box of food to take home over the holidays — can make a big impact.
— Katherine Nelson is a member of the Prosper Texas Stake.